


got time on my hands (time to slow you down)

by reachedthebitterend



Series: changing the past [1]
Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Changing the past, M/M, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-11
Updated: 2019-08-11
Packaged: 2020-08-19 07:15:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20205829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reachedthebitterend/pseuds/reachedthebitterend
Summary: Alex wakes up from a medically induced coma after losing his leg, with the knowledge of everything that is to come.





	got time on my hands (time to slow you down)

**Author's Note:**

> written on 06/11/19

Alex has been waiting for this moment since the second he woke up from a medically induced coma while he was healing from losing his leg and found out that the last couple of months he’d been living through hadn’t actually happened.

Or hadn’t happened _yet _since everything since he woke up until this moment, where he’s waiting on bated breath for Michael to show up at the Airstream, was exactly the same as he remembered.

Alex couldn’t exactly stop the government from requisitioning Foster’s Ranch, not without offering an alternative or a really good explanation that wouldn’t get anybody arrested or murdered, but he could stop his father.

It had been the highlight of his entire _life _to see the look on his father’s face when he’d been discharged and arrested for abusing his rank and keeping Project Shepherd operational after he’d been ordered to shut it down.

It felt better than knocking him out with his crutch.

And while Alex is sure that he hasn’t seen the last of his father yet, given his obsessive behavior, for the next three years that’s going to be someone else’s problem.

Alex is back in Roswell for a reason, and the alien serial killer is only a part of it.

The much larger part is driving up beneath the Foster’s Ranch sign right now.

Alex looks down at his watch and sees that he’s right on time.

He turns towards the doors of the Airstream, and peeks through the window, trying to look busy.

Alex had told his supervisors that it was unnecessary to send a whole group of airmen to tell one civilian they needed relocate their Airstream, and he’d been granted permission to go alone.

Which was a good thing, because while Alex really doesn’t care anymore, he really doesn’t want witnesses to what’s going to happen next.

“Hey!” Michael says voice sharp and demanding as his hand closes around Alex’s arm and pulls him around roughly. “That’s private property!”

The last word seems to die in his throat halfway through as he gets a good look at Alex’s face.

And Alex, Alex had been too busy back then drinking in the entire sight of him, eyes darting down the length of him and back up, like a man dying of thirst looking at a mirage of a cool glass of water, to notice the look in Michael’s eyes.

But he can’t look away now.

It’s only been a couple of months for him, not even a full eighteen since he saw Michael last, running out of the Airstream and into the stormy night.

But for Michael it’s been ten years, and Alex can feel the weight of it in his gaze.

In the way he can’t seem to look at Alex directly, and how bright his eyes get.

Back then, he’d been too afraid with his father right there to let himself look back the way that he wanted to, but he doesn’t stop himself now.

“Alex,” Michael says, and Alex can see him steeling himself, covering the vulnerability he’d just displayed with a smirk. “Back from Baghdad. Your father must be proud. Finally, a real Manes Man.”

Alex shakes his head and keeps up with the script. “Three quarters of one,” he says and leans down to tap against the metal, and sees how Michael’s antagonism immediately drops when he looks down and realizes what it means.

Alex inhales deeply.

“And my father isn’t much of a real Manes Man,” he says, and has to control his smile when Michael’s eyes snap to his face, wide with shock. “Not with a dishonorable discharge and the three years in federal prison he’s going to serve for continuing a project his supervisors shut down years ago, under his belt.”

Michael continues to look at him in shock, and well, that’s the least of the shocking revelations that Alex has in store for Michael, so he waits.

Waits for Michael to blink and look away, before he inhales deeply and looks back at him.

“What are you doing here?”

Alex pulls out the envelope with the eviction notice. “They’re requisitioning the Ranch. You have a week to move.”

Michael’s face shutters, and Alex was fully expecting that, so he just waits for Michael to speak again.

He grabs the envelope, careful not to touch Alex, and doesn’t open it as he looks at him.

“Is there a reason why you _didn’t _just tape this to my door?” He asks, and gives him a cocky head tilt and drags his eyes down Alex as though trying to put him off.

“I wanted to see you,” Alex says, and once again he catches Michael off guard.

His eyes snap back up to Alex’s face, wide with shock once again, completely caught off guard, and Alex thinks that maybe, he’s going to enjoy reliving this all more than he thought, if everything he says gets Michael looking at him like he can’t believe Alex is real.

“Why?” Michael demands, voice hoarse.

“We have _a lot_ of things to talk about,” Alex says and takes one step closer to him even though they’re already at arm’s length. “But I want to say this first, and I want you to just listen.”

Alex reaches for Michael’s left hand and Michael freezes, letting Alex lift his hand to his face.

Alex licks his lips and cradles his hand gently between his.

He inhales and looks up at Michael who looks like he’s two seconds away from falling apart.

“I’m sorry,” he starts, and Michael’s eyes fill with tears. “I shouldn’t have left you behind when I left. I could stand here, in front of you and tell you that I didn’t want to go. But I did.”

Michael licks his lips, and looks to the side, blinking rapidly.

Alex inhales and continues talking, running his thumbs gently over the valley of scars on the back of his hand and looking at the way that his fingers twitch in Alex’s grip.

“After what my father did to you, I wanted to be the kind of person who could win battles,” he licks his lips and can feel the way that Michael’s pulse is jumping erratically. “It felt good. But it also made me feel like I was no better than my father.”

Michael’s hand twitches hard in his, “Alex, no-”

“Let me finish,” Alex asks, pleads really, closing his eyes and inhaling deeply.

When Michael doesn’t reply, Alex exhales and keeps going.

“I couldn’t look in the mirror without seeing his face and I was so afraid of coming back here and having _you _tell me that I was no better than him, so I stayed away.”

Michael’s fingers dig into the skin of his palm, and Alex presses his thumbs down against the back of his hand.

“I’ve been to war, and I lost my leg, and my father was the monster under my bed, and my mother never loved me, but,” Alex swallows again and lifts Michael’s hand to his lips, pressing a kiss to the scars.

He hears Michael inhale sharply.

“Leaving you behind was one of the hardest things that I ever had to do, and if you just give me one more chance, I _promise _to-”

Michael tugs his hand out of Alex’s grip roughly, and Alex feels his stomach sink to the floor.

Fuck, why is he always saying the wrong things?

He looks up to Michael ready to apologize, but Michael’s fingers dig into the back of his neck, and he jerks him close, roughly, _desperately_, and crashes their mouths together.

It hurts, but it feels so _good_.

Alex moans against his mouth and wraps his arms around Michael’s waist and opens up to him, surrendering easily when Michael tries to _devour _him, biting his mouth open and licking inside and obliterating every single coherent thought in Alex’s head.

His fingers are bruises against the back of his neck, keeping him impossibly close, and making noises in the back of his throat that make Alex want to be _closer_.

Michael pulls away on a gasp and presses their foreheads together, inhaling deeply.

Alex watches the look on his face as he slowly opens his eyes, and he feels like the entire world has finally gotten back on it’s natural orbit, when Michael looks at him eyes wide and brimming with wonder and content.

When his eyes meet Alex’s he smiles, bright and happy, and just like the boy Alex fell in love with when he was seventeen.

Alex can’t help but kiss him again, nice and slow and easy, and when Michael’s desperation tries to get him to speed up, Alex slows him down again.

After all, they have all the time in the world, and Alex isn’t planning on going anywhere.


End file.
